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Classic Bike YAMAHA DT250 WORKSH: O P TORQUE LIKE A COMMANDO RESTORATION PROJECT REBUILD DUMP TRUCK Brochure-perfect, BUILD A FITTER V-twin masterpiece then we got it fi lthy HONDA CR250 ridden with gusto FIT UNIVERSAL MARCH 2014 MARCH MUDGUARDS , MARCH 2014 UK £4.10 USA $9.99 | WILD BSA LIGHTNING SPECIAL | INSIDE HONDA’S CX500 TWIN | BUILD A FITTER HONDA CR250 | WHY THE GOLD STAR WAS A WINNER ON EVERY SURFACE EVENTS | 2014 GUIDE | YAMAHA DT250 RESTORATION | WIN A LAT H E ! £1200 Sealey up for grabs U LTI MATE B E EZAP a g e 11 ★ 725CC AND A 270º CRANK ★ 21ST CENTURY CHASSIS BIKES IN THIS ISSUE Sensational BSA A65 Dunstall & Norvil Commandos Triumph T140 Bonnie Lightning redefines the Honda CB400 Four great British twin Matchless G50 BMW RnineT BSA Gold Star Honda CR750 Indian Chief BMW R90S 2014 CLASSIC EVENTS GUIDE From Spanish rallies to muddy trials fun: key diary dates ISSUE #410 ★ H I G H F LYE R ★ CX500 STRIP SUPER MAGGOT MOUTH POWER Steve McLaughlin, the man Crawling inside Honda’s who invented Superbike racing unburstable V-twin 21st CENTURY A65 36 ◗ Oguma’s list of the bikes he worked on during his 16 years as a Honda road tester. HEIR SUPREMACY BSA built their last A65 Lightning in 1972. Forty years on, Jim Gysin has created a 21st century successor, complete with bespoke chassis and a radical motor. Prepare for take-off... WORDS: RUPERT PAUL. PHOTOGRAPHY: JASON CRITCHELL 37 21st CENTURY A65 ◗ Needless to say, this did not come off a shelf... Bespoke oil tank fits snug as a bug in a rug ◗ Adjustable gear rod was turned from hex. Central hex-section holds the rod while the locknuts are tightened or loosened ◗ Amals only come as left-handers. The solution – a rose-jointed choke linkage – came from the steering for a radio-controlled car ◗ Motogadget tacho also displays mph, voltage, air/oil temp, max rpm, etc. Oil pressure warning doubles as shift light ◗ Just in case you missed the radically different roar it produces... ◗ Sidepanel looks like the BSA original, but is shrunk and substantially restyled to suit the rest of the bike. Curved subframe support tube follows the original’s lines 50 im Gysin, owner of this unique BSA special, tells a with completely empty silencers. The timing gears were drilled by nice story about his first long ride on the bike, in the hand, with all the holes countersunk and cleaned up. The valve J company of his Triumph-mounted brothers Rob spring retainers were all scolloped round the edges – guaranteed and Bill: “It was last summer. We’d been riding all to break at some point, but cheaper than titanium and with the day and stopped for a Ribena in some Welsh village. same effect.” There’s a film of how quick the BSA was (search for This elderly lady comes out, and we’re right in front of the shop – ‘Cadwell Park 94 A65’ on YouTube), showing it being chased three noisy bikes going ‘broom, broom’, with the three of us round Cadwell by a screaming CBR400 at a Performance Bikes yelling to each other. We’re expecting her to say: ‘Get those bloody trackday in 1994. Even from the Honda’s cockpit you can hear things out of the way’. What she actually did was go into mum the Beeza’s ear-splitting roar, and marvel at its drive out of mode: ‘Oh, it does you good to see good old British motorcycles. corners. Years later, Jim tracked down the BSA’s builder on the They’re lovely’. You wouldn’t get that on anything else. But that’s phone. The old gentleman, whose name Jim has sadly mislaid, what British bikes do – they seem said he sold the BSA to a guy to engender a feeling of warmth who made him an offer he and nostalgia in everyone.” couldn’t refuse – and then It’s a reaction Jim’s getting used ‘The more finished a bike looks, realised immediately he’d to, even though his bike is a very the harder it is to imagine the done the wrong thing. different animal from the BSA A65 The brothers built Rob’s Lightning upon which it’s based vast piles of physical, financial Bonnie, engaging top-quality on, and that he rode for 20 years. specialists Metal Malarkey to Apart from the crankcases, and spiritual swarf that created it’ make the frame and P&M to cylinder head, fuel tank and a few assemble the engine. Next smaller bits, this reborn Beeza is made from completely new parts came Bill’s Trident, featured in Classic Bike in December 2011. – most of them highly modified or designed from scratch. The Finally, in early 2012, it was the turn of Jim’s BSA. With two result is a Brummy twin that goes, stops, turns and rides like a amazing bikes under their belts, the brothers decided the A65 modern bike, but retains the charisma of its 1960s inspiration. would be more adventurous, but retain the original café racer’s Jim and his brother Bill dreamed up the idea of a 21st century red tank and chrome mudguards. “The goal was lightness and British bike in a pub in 2006. At the time they were plotting to trickness,” says Jim. “A 270° crank and a light, chromoly frame.” re-engineer a Bonnie for third brother Rob’s 50th (see below). The more finished a bike looks, the harder it is to imagine the But the impetus for choosing a Brit bike in the first place was Jim’s vast piles of physical, financial and spiritual swarf that created it. BSA Lightning café racer, which he’d bought in 1991 for £1950. Point at any part of the BSA and the brothers will produce a “It had been built in the late 1970s, then put into a museum,” Jim hilarious tale of interconnected problems, blind alleys, false starts explains. “I bought it not even knowing if it would run. I’d just and wasted money. Together, these yarns would fill the entire sold a Triton that literally disintegrated beneath me. The BSA had magazine, so we’ll take just one – the mudguards. a matt black exhaust bolted on in about four places, and I thought: In keeping with the original bike, they had to be chrome. But to ‘That’s not going to fall apart’.” accommodate a 160-section tyre, the rear mudguard had to be a Within minutes of starting the bike, Jim realised he’d bought custom item. Bill considered steel, briefly. “I thought: ‘How the something special; 23 years later, he relives the moment with hell am I going to add three inches to the middle without it rolling eyes, wild hand gestures and extravagant sound effects. looking crap? So we decided make them out of GRP, which was “It was like, brrrrm, this is good, warrr, this is quick, narrrrgh, good for light weight, and get them metallised.” this is bloody unbelievable! Then I changed from third to fourth. Jim takes up the story with the air of a man who has learned Hang on, the clutch is slipping! But no – it had a close-ratio ’box!” the hard way not to take himself too seriously. “We started off When the BSA finally blew up eight months later, the brothers with some chrome-sprayer bloke. He had about five attempts, and had the chance to appreciate what had gone into the motor. it came out in various shades of copper and purple.” Bill chips in: “It was a masterpiece, built by someone who knew what they were “And each time it happened we had to take the paint off again, doing, but didn’t have any money,” says Bill. “It had a Devimead take it back to the paint shop and get it smooth as a baby’s bum 750 conversion and timing-side roller bearing. The matt black in primer to get the new finish applied.” Next Jim found a pipes were tucked in and upswept, cut and shut round the rearsets, metalliser. “He was just rubbish. He was on the phone: ‘They HE AIN’VYT HEA, HE’S MY BROTHER (AND SO IS HE) Bill and Jim Gysin planned to build three lifetime spent building custom cars and no-compromise British bikes as “a kind of boats to subtly update the original styling. thread to bind us back together again,” as “The bikes had to look as good as Jim puts it. The first, a 50th bir people’s memories of them,” says Bill. thday present Bonnie for oldest brother “Rob reckons only about one person in 25 Rob, set the style for what was to come: realises how special his Bonnie is. The Metisse-type frames by Metal Malarkey, rest just say: ‘You’ve looked after that P&M tuned motors, Maxton suspension, well.’ As far as we can tell, nobody’s ever ISR brakes and switchgear, Hinckley done this before with these bikes.” Search Triumph forks, modern tyres and for ‘Classic British Bikes Reborn’ on Motogadget electrics. Bill and Jim used a YouTube for the three brothers’ tale. 39 21st CENTURY A65 ‘On a stock A65 the vibration is enough to turn your blood to cappuccino froth. The brothers say this one finally starts shaking at 8000 revs’ look lovely, mate!’ But he didn’t have a clue. I just said: ‘How pratting about.” Bill, who did the lion’s share of the build, comes much do we owe you?’. That was another £120.